|
|
|
By Brianna, on January 5th, 2012 
During my organization frenzy of 2012 I am pretty excited to tackle the spice mess in my pantry. I created a mounted spice rack using old baby food jars. Want to learn how? See the following tutorial on creating your own spice rack. Bonus organization: I not only cleaned up the spices but I used these random jars I refused to throw away.
Necessary Materials
Jars with lids (Labels removed… If you want it to be aesthetically pleasing)
Wooden board or Shelf
Wood Screws
Drill
Step 1 Painting the Lids (Not shown because spray paint comes with directions)
Depending on
[Continue Reading By Clicking Here...]
By Brianna, on December 12th, 2011 
I tried a variety of techniques to make crystal ornaments and accents for my Christmas tree. I wanted a naturalistic looking crystal without a lot of cost or time. Follow this simple recipe to make these beautiful borax crystal ornaments overnight.
Crystal ornaments made with borax in less than 24 hours.
Supplies
(TBSP or 1/4 cup measure not shown)
Borax (Found with the laundry detergent) Large glass jar, or steal borrow your husband’s pint glass Straw, dowel, piece of wire, bamboo skewer basically something to attach across the top of the glass Paper coated florist wire (or
[Continue Reading By Clicking Here...]
By Brianna, on October 19th, 2011 
This weeks DIY project shows how to make some easy gravestone treat bags for Halloween. I am assuming you are making these for a party or small number of kids. We had over 150 trick or treaters last year so clearly they aren’t each getting hand made treat bags. However, some select family and friends will be getting Halloween favors.
Gravestone Treat Bags
Materials:
Basic paper treat bag (Grey would speed up the process but good luck finding that)
Black & white acrylic paint (cheap is fine)
Old paint brush
Scissors
Optional:
Printer & stencil plastic
Repositionable Adhesive
[Continue Reading By Clicking Here...]
By Brianna, on October 12th, 2011 
This week’s DIY project is about party favors. While not every occasion calls for favors, they can be a nice touch. These particular ones will be used for a baby shower I am assisting with this weekend. However, I am using a format that could easily be adapted for most occasions. The final product looks like this:
It includes a small craft bag which will be filled with a variety of homemade mini-cookies (wrapped in cellophane) but could easily include small items from candy to candles. The opening is closed with three layers of paper cut in a traditional ribbon
[Continue Reading By Clicking Here...]
By Brianna, on September 20th, 2011 
One of the easiest ways to create pretty Harvest or Fall themed decorations involves nothing more than 8 ears of Indian corn, wire, and a stick. With these simple items you can create a pretty fall swag like this one:
Step 1:
Gather your materials. No, I wasn’t joking, it really does just require corn, wire, and a stick. I guess if you want to be technical you will need wire cutters (in this case old garden shears) and something to hang the swag with (more wire).
Step 2:
Take one ear of corn and overlap the pulled back husks
[Continue Reading By Clicking Here...]
By Brianna, on January 25th, 2011
In case you hadn’t gotten the memo spending is out and saving is in. How do I know this? Because Yahoo publishes an article on it about… every five seconds. Here is an example from last night. Everytime I read one I feel Patrick smiling over my shoulder. He was on the frugality kick since the beginning. I’m pretty sure he came out of the womb savings bond in hand. Actually, I think it might be a simple part of his Willis genetics. I can only pray he passes it on to our son.
Since I am trying to learn
[Continue Reading By Clicking Here...]
By Brianna, on January 13th, 2011
I have always wanted to try my hand at felting (also called fulling) an old wool sweater. I’ve read how easy it was and due to the massive clothing purge I completed this weekend I had a few on hand to try. I especially wanted to find a good use for a beautiful merino sweater that was a gift for Patrick. The cable knit was so nice, but it was just too hot and didn’t quite fit right. Patrick never wore it, but we both hated to just part with it. Instead I decided to felt it and make it
[Continue Reading By Clicking Here...]
By Brianna, on December 1st, 2010 So you want to make fresh, evergreen garland? I don’t blame you! It’s another one of my cheap and easy Christmas decorations that people go gaga over. Moreover, nothing smells like Christmas except the scent of fresh cut pine. Let’s get down to business and learn how to create evergreen garland, also known as swags.
The process is very similar to my evergreen wreath tutorial. You might want to give it a quick run through before going through this one. Wreaths are a tiny bit easier because you are working with a stable frame and on a smaller scale. However,
[Continue Reading By Clicking Here...]
By Brianna, on November 29th, 2010 “Granny” has been helping me collect cheap items for the Christmas Tour of Homes. Since McClain is not always the easiest baby to entertain she sometimes resorts to taking him places, which, often happens to be Goodwill. She has found lots of wonderful items that just need a little love to look fantastic.
I thought it would be wonderful to have an antique, Rococo, gold candelabra to set on the mantel. However, the real things (even in brass) are upwards of $200. Luckily, my mother found this beige rusty candle stick at Goodwill. I believe it was marked down to
[Continue Reading By Clicking Here...]
By Brianna, on November 12th, 2010
We have finally achieved” brick stripped of paint status”. It’s been a long time coming… And included a process that involves, actual blood, lots of sweat, and while no tears, some unfortunate cursing was involve. Both singularly “Who the fuck paints brick, brick-colored?” (There was a layer of paint that was the same color as the bricks) and betwixt ourselves “Damn it, Patrick, you’re getting that shit all over the floor.” (Paint mixed with remover is a mess) Okay, really only I cussed.
If you want to read about the process you can read Part 1 and Part 2 of
[Continue Reading By Clicking Here...]
|
|
